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Food Safety Problem with Romaine

The Food Safety Problem with Romaine Lettuce

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November has come and gone, and with it another major food safety problem with Romaine lettuce causing an illness hazard and sickening your guests. This week, we’d like to look at some of the potential causes of these outbreaks, and how good food safety training helps prevent sickening your guests with contaminated lettuce.

Food Safety Problem with Romaine

Image Credit: BlackRiv via Pixabay

Hints On How To Prevent A Food Safety Problem with Romaine Lettuce

Like most vegetables, romaine lettuce grows in the dirt, and as we all know, dirt is dirty. Soil contains all sorts of bacteria and contaminates, it is home is insects and snails, and it can be further contaminated by fertilizers and other outside sources. Even the water that farmers use to water their crops can be contaminated with bacteria that can be harmful to people who consume the final product.

Some farms that grow our produce also house livestock. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that manure can spread from one section of the farm to another on a worker’s boots or the tread of a tractor tire. As you can imagine, there are infinite possibilities as to how romaine lettuce becomes a health hazard, but what can we do about it?

Unfortunately, keeping the food from becoming contaminated on the farm is outside of the scope of what we do as a food safety training provider, however, we can help you take steps to keep lettuce in your restaurant clean and free from contaminates. Here are a few steps you should take:

  • Inspect lettuce upon delivery
  • Wash lettuce thoroughly
  • Be alert for recalls
  • Dispose of potentially contaminated romaine lettuce

A close inspection of your lettuce will reveal how much soil has been shipped with your product or if bugs and snails have tagged along for the ride. If you feel that your lettuce isn’t up to food safety standards, don’t be afraid to reject the shipment.

It’s not just a food safety problem with Romaine, all fresh produce should be washed thoroughly before serving, but lettuces such as romaine need extra attention. There’s a reason that you hear about more food poising cases from lettuce than potatoes. Potatoes and many other fruits and vegetables have one continuous outside surface, so a quick wash gets rid of more bacteria than a quick wash of a head of lettuce. We suggest washing your lettuce after taking the leaves off of the head in order to rinse areas that won’t be cleaned if the head is washed whole.

Finally, be aware of recalls and dispose of compromised lettuce. Taking a hit on food cost is a much better option that sickening your guests.

Did your business suffer from that latest recall of romaine lettuce?

Alfalfa Sprouts and the MN Certified Food Manager

Alfalfa Sprouts and the MN Certified Food Manager

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Alfalfa Sprouts and the MN Certified Food Manager

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In the month of February, an E. coli outbreak linked to fresh sprouts struck the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Fresh alfalfa sprouts have been linked to several food-borne illness cases over the past several years, so we’d like to take the time to review how MN certified food managers can keep their customers from consuming tainted sprouts and other sensitive raw produce items.

Sensitive Produce Items and the MN Certified Food Manager

The recent E. coli outbreak in our state wasn’t merely an isolated incident. In a completely unrelated outbreak this year, sprouts grown in Kansas have been found to be the cause of illnesses as far away as Pennsylvania. When something like this happens, we like to take the time to have a discussion on how food service professionals can prevent these types of incidents from affecting their guests.

It is never safe to assume that raw sprouts, or any other raw produce items, are safe to consume right out of its packaging. All produce should be thoroughly rinsed and dried before it is made available to your customers.

Secondly, you should always throw away or return recalled produce items to your supplier. In this most recent case, the health department has warned that there may still be recalled alfalfa sprouts on retail store shelves or in food preparation facilities. On our blog page, we’ve incorporated a widget that will help you stay current on any recall information, and we suggest you check it regularly to make sure that you do not have recalled items in your inventory.

Finally, you should never serve raw sprouts of any kind if your regular customer base includes individuals that are susceptible to food-borne illness. The FDA recommends that alfalfa sprouts never be served to the elderly, children or those who have depleted immune systems. If you are in charge of food service for a school, assisted living home or medical facility, we strongly urge you to keep raw sprouts off of the menu.

At Safe Food Training, we like to hear how our readers deal with these types of situations. Do you serve raw alfalfa sprouts in your facility, or would you rather not take the risk and keep them off of your menu entirely?